City Attorney Mike Aguirre, who’s famous for usually disappearing into the mist on election night, just showed up, in person, at a downtown restaurant to make a brief speech to reporters.
Aguirre, decked out in a bright yellow raincoat, addressed reporters in a side room of the Athens Taverna Market on West F St., which is allegedly his campaign party room for the evening. TV crews and other journalists had been camped out at the restaurant for awhile, waiting to see if any Aguirre supporters would show up. None did.
Aguirre said he had been out campaigning since 5 a.m. and had hit almost every neighborhood in the city. He said he expects to win the race, especially considering the high turnout among Democratic voters.
“I think tonight’s going to be a long night, based upon our understanding of where the turnout has occurred and what is happening on a national basis. If what is happening on a national basis happens here, we could have a long night of counting and we may not know until tomorrow,” he said.
But even as Aguirre spoke, the numbers were coming in at Golden Hall, the city’s election central and they weren’t good for him.
The tally of absentee votes from the county showed Aguirre far behind his opponent, Jan Goldsmith. According to the absentee vote tally, Aguirre was trailing Goldsmith by more than 20 percentage points, 60.5 percent to 39.5 percent.
Earlier, Aguirre’s political consultant, Chris Crotty, said Aguirre was hoping to be within 7 or 8 percentage points of his opponent in the absentee votes at this point.
Aguirre said he would be making another comment as soon as more definitive results come in.